GOD wants for gay people what he wants for non-gay people, the Dean of St Albans, the Very Revd Dr Jeffrey John, said at a Gay Pride service on Saturday, namely, a loving monogamous relationship.

Dr John was preaching to a congregation of about 300 in St Martin-in-the-Fields, central London. He recounted his own story, including his prayerful struggle with his sexuality. "In the end I reached the firm conclusion that what God wants for most gay people is exactly the same as he wants for most non gay people, which is, to find someone to love and care for, for life. In a word: monogamy.

"It has always been obvious to me, and I think it is instinctively obvious to most people, that being in a secure, committed relationship with someone you love and want to share your life with is likely to maximise the health and happiness of both of you."

This was not just a "wishful" conclusion, he said, but the result of "a lot of prayer and theology. . . If, as St Paul says, God blesses marriage because the love of two people can reflect his love for us, then that obviously applies to gay people just as much, provided their relationship is based on the same covenant and the same commitment. I couldn't see, and I still can't see, that anything in scripture condemns that."

He also spoke of his commitment to the Church of England: "Lots of people have asked me over the last ten years, and no doubt they have asked you the same thing: 'Why do you stay in the Church? Why do you bother with this awful institution that keeps on humiliating you and beating you up?' Well, now you know. I have had absolutely no choice. . . Who in their right mind would stay unless they knew the love of Christ was calling them?"